News

The Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering invites the university community to attend a talk by Abigail Woolridge (University of Wisconsin - Madison). Health care, as well as many industries in today’s society, consists of complex sociotechnical systems, i.e. people working with technology(ies) in an organization and a physical environment, and interacting with various processes.

The College of Nursing is pleased to present the second talk in its 2018 Spring Seminar Series, to be delivered by Peter Friedmann, MD, the Chief Research Officer and Endowed Chair for Clinical Research at Baystate Health. Dr. Friedmann is a primary care internist, addiction medicine clinician, and established substance abuse researcher.

The newly restored Old Chapel crackled with energy on the morning of November 30, as an over-capacity crowd gathered to hear activist Loretta Ross and public scholar Rickie Solinger reflect on their decades-long collaboration to advance the movement for reproductive justice. The duo offered a frank discussion – punctuated by humor and warmth – about their commitment to work through what might easily have become deep-seated barriers to solidarity between a white historian of the struggle and the Black organizer who founded SisterSong. For the scholar-activist team, authenticity, vulnerability, humbleness and the power to imagine alliances for social justice across racial, class, gender and even international boundaries are all vital to sustaining a productive alliance.

In his December 7 seminar on what he termed “Academia’s crisis of relevance” at the Institute for Social Science Research, Professor Andrew Hoffman (University of Michigan) promised to be provocative, in order to push scientists outside of their comfort zones, and scientific institutions into faster change. Hoffman, who earned his BA in chemical engineering from UMass Amherst and his PhD in management/civil & environmental engineering from MIT, quickly delivered on that promise, with a rapid-fire review of studies on the “abysmal state” of public perceptions of science.

On Friday, October 20, a crowded house of social scientists, computer scientists, and planners gathered in the new ISSR lab to discuss insights emerging from a National Science Foundation funded project on the social sciences and big data. Leading the dialogue were the project’s principal investigators, who have each been program directors at the National Science Foundation: Susan Sterett, Director of the School of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Kelly Joyce, Director of the Science, Technology & Society Center and Professor of Sociology at Drexel University.

Members of the UMass community now have easy access to a new stream of data for their research projects, as Gallup Analytics conducts a trial of its data portal with the library at UMass. Any student or faculty member should be able to access the portal if in range of the campus internet at this link https://analyticscampus.gallup.com/?ref=Auth

Drawing upon previously unpublished government data obtained through the Mexican Freedom of Information system, interviews with key Mexican officials and accounts from civil-society organizations, a new report from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) assesses Mexico’s legal framework for child protection and its treatment of unaccompanied children, from apprehension through detention and adjudication of international protection claims. The report, Strengthening Mexico’s Protection of Central American Unaccompanied Minors in Transit, finds that while Mexico has undertaken ambitious reform of its child protection system, implementation of these policies is uneven and ongoing.

Congratulations to our ace-in-the-hole Grants, Personnel and Budget Manager, Karen Mason, whose excellence and service earned her this year's staff award from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at UMass. Karen, who is busy as we speak orchestrating ISSR's move to beautiful new offices in Machmer Hall, is truly the heart and soul of our organization, and we count our lucky stars every day.

Are you a student with great organizational and communication skills? Looking for a great job in a friendly environment? Join us as a Summer Departmental Assistant; the position is for 10 hours a week, starting as soon as possible.

ISSR is supported by the University of Massachusetts Amherst's College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Engagement, and the Graduate School, as well as by the College of Education, the Isenberg School of Management, and the School of Earth and Sustainability.

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